Project Two Transform
Paul Caponigro
Project Two Transform • Transforming objects through photography • Controlling light • Digital darkroom • Quality prints
Paul Caponigro
Keywords scale, translation, interpretation, transformation, communication, reflection, representation, differentiation, attachment, mnemonics, memory, desire, artefact, revelation, abstraction, focus, reframing, rearranging, lighting
Reading • Clarke, Graham. How Do We Read a Photograph. • Barthes, Roland. Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography
Minimum Submission Requirements • First 6 – 10 images uploaded to Flickr • 6-10 images uploaded to Flickr for interim grade • 6 digitally (2 for each object) generated professional prints produced and mounted to exhibition standard • digital version to be uploaded to Flickr and the R:/drive • short statement reviewing your project’s development and final outcome with references to theoretical ideas from class readings • answers to the required reading documented in your workbook • workbook documenting your research and the development of ideas
Exhibition Standard – exhibition standard work + photographic prints – Mounted – Not Big Image across road, not something off home/uni printer! – Quality prints – ImageLab, Wellington Photographic Suppliers, Photo Warehouse – Avoid happy snappy labs – poor quality – colour casts, etc.
Assessment Criteria • ability to imaginatively explore photographic vision • quality and coherence in your concepts • effective technical control • evidence of research and successful understanding of visual precedents • evidence of documentation of and reflection upon project's progress • high level of craft and attention to detail
Key Dates • Project 2 intro: Wed 24th March • First images uploaded to Flickr: by Wed 31st March Interim assessment of work in progress: Wed 21st April Test 1 – Camera as a Tool: Wed 21st April – 10% of course grade • Final hand-in and review: Wed 28th April. N.B. it is mandatory that all students present during the review.
Technical Info
Digital Basics Digital basics
Pixels and Levels
Pixels - small square picture elements that contain colour, greyscale, or black and white information.
Continuous tone
Ten pixels
These ten pixels, each with a different tone are used to describe the continuous tone above. Each different tone is called a level.
Digital Basics Binary Code A bit (short for binary digit) can either be a one or a zero and is the foundation of a computer’s language. A digital image is just a long string of binary code. Bit = 1 or 0 Byte = 8 Bits Kilobyte (k) = 1024 Bytes Megabyte (Mb) = 1024 K Gigabyte (Gb) = 1024 Mb Terrabyte (Tb) = 1024 Gb
Digital Basics Colour Depth A 1-bit image (1 or 0) contains pixels which can be either on or off (black or white) (21)
1 bit
2 bit
A 2-bit image (00, 01, 10, or 11) contains pixels of four values black, white and two different greys (22 = 2x2 = 4) A 4-bit image contains pixels which can be any of 16 values (24 = 2x2x2x2=16)
Digital Basics Colour Depth An 8-bit image contains pixels which can be any of 256 values (28 = 256). A 16-bit image contains pixels which can be any of 65 thousand values. A 24-bit image contains pixels which can be any of 16.7 Million values. Once we get to this size of colour depth the palette of colours is virtually unlimited.
Digital Basics Colour Model • closely related to bit depth. • greyscale goes up to 8-bit, which renders 256 shades. • colour images are multiples of 8-bit channels • RGB, the normal model for computer graphics, goes up to 24-bit (three 8-bit channels for red, green, and blue).
8 bit
24 bit
Digital Basics RGB Colour Model Red, green, and blue are the primary colours of light. RGB is also the colour model for light that's emitted from a source such as a computer monitor. Camera sensors and most scanners also use an RGB colour model for recording digital image data.
Digital Basics RGB Colour RGB colour is called additive because colours throughout the spectrum are created by adding varying intensities of red, green, and blue light to black (no light). These intensities vary from 255 (full intensity) to 0. Each colour channel has 256 variations and their combinations allow creating a total of 16,777,216 colours.
Tonal distribution ????
Histogram
low key image
high key image
Camera Resolution
Pre-Photography
Jan Davidsz Heem
Attributed to Pieter Clausz, Still Life with a Skull and a Writing Quill, oil on canvas, 1628
Willem Kalf, Still Life with Ming Ginger Jar, oil on canvas, 1669
A New Era
William Fox Talbot
Roger Fenton, Still Life with Fruit and Decanter, albumen print, 1860
Hippolyte Bayard, Arrangement of Specimens, cyanotype, c.1842
William Fox Talbot, Articles of Glass plate 4 from The Pencil of Nature, calotype photograph, c.1844
Louis-Jacques-MandĂŠ Daguerre, Shells and Fossils, Daguerreotype, 1839
Still Life – Modern Vision
Josef Sudek
Karl Blossfeldt, Urformen Der Kunst, p. 26, photogravure, 1928
Karl Blossfeldt, Maidenhair Fern, Unfurling Fronds, photogravure, 1928
Paul Strand, Still Life with Pear and Bowls, platinum print, 1916
Andre Kertesz, Mondrian’s Spectacles, gelatin silver print, 1926
Andre Kertesz, Fork, paris, gelatin silver print, 1928
Eugen Wiskovsky, Moon Landscape, silver gelatin print, 1929
Eugen Wiskovsky, Screws, silver gelatin print, 1929-34
Metropolis, Fritz Lang
Eugen Wiskovsky, Isolator II, silver gelatin print, 1935
Josef Sudek, Two Glasses, silver gelatin print, 1950-54
Josef Sudek, Simple Still Life, silver gelatin print, 1954
Paul Caponigro, Galaxy Apple, New York City, silver gelatin print, 1964
Transformation Translation
Sian Bonnell
William Wegman, Cotto, gelatin silver print, 1970
Tina Modotti, Flor de Manita, c.1925
Edward Weston, Pepper #30, 1930
Imogen Cunningham, Datura
Anne Noble, Rope from the series Night Hawk silver gelatin print, 1982
Yuki Onodera, No. 2 from the series Portraits des Fripes, gelatin silver print, 1994
Yuki Onodera, No. 5 from the series Portraits des Fripes, gelatin silver print, 1994
Yuki Onodera, No. 45 from the series Portraits des Fripes, gelatin silver print, 1997
Abelardo Morell, Book: Le Antichita Romane by Piranesi #1, gelatin silver print, 1994
Abelardo Morell, Book of Stars, gelatin silver print, 1994
Victor Schrager, #21, c- print, 2003
Victor Schrager, #37, c- print, 2004
Victor Schrager, #49, c- print, 2004
Victor Schrager, #65, c- print, 2004
Milagros de la Torre, Untitled from the series Los Pasos Perdidos (The Lost Steps), gelatin silver print, 1996
Milagros de la Torre, Untitled from the series Los Pasos Perdidos (The Lost Steps), gelatin silver print, 1996
Chema Madoz, Untitled (Cerilla-Mad-Era), gelatin silver print, 1994
Chema Madoz, Untitled (Cerilla-Termometro), gelatin silver print, 1995
Peter Peryer, Headless Chicken, gelatin silver print, 1995
Peter Peryer, After Rembrandt, gelatin silver print, 1995
Robert Mapplethorpe, Cala Lily, silver gelatin print, 1986
Fiona Pardington, Pamamao / Afar North Island Piopio from the series Fugitive Beings, gold toned silver gelatin print, 2004
Fiona Pardington, Ngai raukura Moa from the series Fugitive Beings, silver gelatin print, 2004
Fiona Pardington, Ake Ake Huia from the series Fugitive Beings, c-print, 2004
Sian Bonnell, from the series Glowing, colour photograph, 2003
Sian Bonnell, from the series Glowing, colour photograph, 2003
Sian Bonnell, from the series Glowing, colour photograph, 2003
Sian Bonnell, from the series Glowing, colour photograph, 2003
Sian Bonnell, from the series Glowing, colour photograph, 2003
Olga Chernysheva, Waiting for the Miracle, 2000
Rinko Kawauchi, Untitled, from the series Aila, 2004
Peter Fraser, Untitled, from Material, 2002
Abstraction
Andre Kertez
Judy Natal, from the series The Hermetic Alphabet, black and white photograph, 2004
Imogen Cunningham, Contorno
Imogen Cunningham, #8
Imogen Cunnigham, Exploding Seed Pod, 1963
Eliot Crowley, #9196 from the series Succulents
Eliot Crowley, #9204 from the series Succulents
Eliot Crowley, #9430 from the series Succulents
Levi Brown
Levi Brown, Crayons
Richard Maxted
Ann Mandelbaum, Untitled, 1994
Ann Mandelbaum, Untitled #176, gelatin silver print, 1997
Richard Garrod, Grill Rolls Royce, Pebble Beach, 1999
Victor Schrager, Untitled #271, 2008
Victor Schrager, Untitled #291, 2008
Victor Schrager, Untitled #529, 2008
Student Work
Jess Morris
Sean Antrobus
Caroline French
Ben Thornton
Terese Soderling
Ben Hines
Hannah Griffin
Michael Hobbs
Kent Khoo
Josh Vermuelen
Jack Jiang
Matt McCallum
Tui Harrington
Rachel Brandon
Nitasa Samountry
Tips • Don’t just position objects to transform them • Primarily you should be using light, the lens and camera angle • Don’t totally abstract for both images of object • In one, reading of object should come through eventually • Remember - No extreme digital colouring. • Minor enhancements can be digitally done (we will be covering this in studio time) • You can use colour gels in the studio
In the digital age, photography is increasingly considered to be a product of technology rather than vision.
Hell No!
SUMMARY • 3 objects (no bigger than something that can sit on a table) • must have substance (i.e. not grains, fabric, towels, clay, etc)
• 2 photographs for each object • 6 digitally produced prints (exhibition quality) • each photo exploring a different idea (i.e. they should not look similar)
• using light, camera angle, scale and >,compositional techniques to transform • EXPERIMENT!
• test shots and interim images to be put on Flickr • unlike Pro 1 you are not producing a series • can shoot in the studio and / or on location
PROJECT1 REVIEW • Session1: photos already downloaded from R:/drive • Session2: upload photos to R:/drive by 3pm • You [most likely] cannot access R:drive in review • If your file sizes are large, they will take too long to load • Prepare a statement and keep it concise • 4min per person • Submit clearly labelled workbook